Hi everyone. So, I am fairly new to the whole Keto lifestyle change. A little bit of background on me,I am 47, had Graves disease when I was 25 and ended up having radioactive iodine, it took about 5 years for them to regulate my Synthroid and have been on same dosage since. I also have RA, so I am taking meds for that as well. Decided to make this lifestyle change and implemented it on April 19. My starting weight was 220. I initially dropped 8 pounds within the 1st week, since then, my weight has gone up to 222 and is now at 215. I have been using the Carb Manager app and have been keeping track of everything I eat and drink. After putting my information into the CM app, it automatically gave me my setting for my macro intake, 15g net carb/20g total, 91g fat , 74g protein and 1200 calories. After the the first day or two, I really struggled getting all of those in, I just wasn’t hungry. Some days I get more fat than protein, other days, its more protein than fat and as for the carbs, I rarely get in the full 15. I drink anywhere from 8-10 glasses of water per day. Somedays, even more, as my mouths so dry! I have had a lingering headache for about a week, flakey and have been a moody bitch.I do put a couple of pinches of salt under my tongue per day and the one day my headache was really bad, I ended up drinking 2- 20 oz Poweraid zero grape flavor. I did have two Kerfluffels, last Saturday night, I drank 4 White Claw Hard Seltzers, woke up with a hangover to beat all Hell! Went over my carb intake that night and was super hungry, so I ended up eating some popcorn in the wee hour of Sunday morning. Also went over carb intake that day. Since then, I have been back to not really feeling hungry. However, I am cold, cranky and have an ongoing headache.
This has been my daily routine, 2 cups of coffee with a total of 2 teaspoons of ghee and 2 tsp heavy cream, when I get hungry, 2 turkey sausage patties and 2 fried eggs, fried in 1 tbsp of butter and after that, if I feel like eating dinner, 1-2 hamburger patties (80/20) with cheese and broccoli with butter on it. Oh and i have had a total of 2 diet cokes since the 19.
Now for my questions, I have been using the urine strips and yes I know they are not super accurate. But, what color am I chasing on those things? Do I want them to be pink or dark pink or negative. At first I thought I wanted the dark pink, but, the more I am going through the forum topics, I am wondering if what I really want is for it to be negative, because that means that my body is not spilling ketones into my urine. Is that correct?
Is it ok if Im not getting all of the macros in because I am not hungry?
Is the fact that I am on Synthroid slowing me down from loosing weight and inches and getting into Keto?
When does this mental clarity kick in?
On the plus side, I used to have to take a 5 mg Melatonin pill every night to fall asleep and I have not had to in the last 4 days. Yea!
ARRGGHHH! Questions!
How tall are you? When you use the calculator, does it have an option for maintenance calories instead of deficit? Negative is kind of the goal with the ketostix but, your body is going to do what it wants with ketones ultimately. As far as cold and moody, that can be a sign of not enough fat and poor ketone uptake or not enough ketones to uptake. Increase fat in small amounts until you’re able to eat more. But, if you’re just not hungry then that’s all it is. If you’ve been in calorie restricting this entire time however, not being hungry could be lowered BMR and we want to eat more to improve that. But, if you were able to eat plenty in the beginning of keto and suddenly find yourself not hungry, your body is just adjusting things. The important thing is to definitely eat when hungry. How did you eat before this? I’ll put my general recommendations below as well so you can realign your calculator to them. I can’t answer the thyroid question specifically but, body changes like that often have effects and we just have to work with them.
We have a few sayings here, “keep calm, keto on” and “trust the process.” Keto isn’t a quick weight loss diet. It’s a health gaining way of eating with fat loss as a side effect. If the scale is an unhealthy obsession, put it away for a couple of months or give it to a neighbor you don’t like.
There are two phases to ketosis and a ketogenic lifestyle.
Nutritional ketosis is phase one. Your body begins to produce and uptake some ketones while dumping the rest. It will still search for glucose to use as fuel. In this phase it’s not an efficient process. It has to work actively to get rid of stored glycogen, clean up excess blood sugar, and turn on the ability to use ketones.
Fat adaptation is phase two. Your body is efficiently producing ketones from intake and stored body fat and is also using them efficiently for energy. It takes around 6-8 weeks of strict keto to achieve for many but not all.
The basic “rules” I go by and many others can agree with especially for beginners are:
*20g net carbs max (you might tolerate more but, starting out, 20g net carbs or less will get you into ketosis.)
*Moderate protein (Moderate means eating different meats and eggs. Preferably meats with their own fat or meats you will add fat to. We aren’t trying to eat protein to be full, we want to add enough fat to our meals to be full with. If you are searching for a number, 1g-1.5g per kg of lean bodyweight is a good goal based on the 2 Dudes recommendations.)
*Fat to satiety (add fat to every meal and, if you are hungry, eat more fat. Don’t be afraid of fat. It is energy.)
*Do not restrict calories
*Do not exercise excessively in an effort to lose weight
*Drink plenty of water
*Get plenty of sodium and other electrolytes (Try homemade ketoaide)
pee stick are unreliable. plain and simple. it will be much less aggravating to just get rid of them.
I second everything said (including how irritating the strips are)
But, to add…
My quick fix for being cold and having a headache was a stick of cheese, sprinkled with salt, wrapped in a bunch of spinach (fat for the coldness, salt & spinach for the sodium/potassium headache, which is like 1 carb), or some keto aid and broth (when I had it).
You can do this! Eat when you’re hungry, eat until you’re full, and don’t worry about macros too much. You’re doing a really awesome thing! Your body/brain is gonna be stubborn and push back. But, woohoo for you!
And the Diet Coke thing is ahmazing. I’m super impressed. 
Thank you for all of the information. I am 5’5.5" I was never a big eater. However, since I saw your reply, I have gone back to making sure I am getting most of my calories in and when I get a headache, adding some fat. It seems to be working, because I can tell that my jeans are looser. As for the headaches, general moodiness and being cold, they have pretty much gone away. Yea! I am trying to get more fat than protein into my diet. Again, thank you for your reply!